| Puggsy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Traveller's Tales |
| Publisher(s) | Psygnosis |
| Designer(s) | Jon Burton |
| Artist(s) | Andy Ingram |
| Composer(s) | Matt Furniss (Genesis and Sega CD versions) Tim Wright (Amiga version) |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle-platform |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
Puggsy is a 1993puzzle-platform game developed byTraveller's Tales and released byPsygnosis on theMega Drive andMega-CD consoles, as well as theAmiga home computer.Puggsy is the name of the title character, an orangespace hopper–likealien who landed his spaceship on The Planet, intending to return home until his spaceship was stolen by theraccoon natives of the planet.
The gameplay is mostly a cross between a normal platform game, with the usual style of platformer enemies and a variety of means to kill them, and a puzzle game of sorts where Puggsy is often required to find objects, and either carry them to a specific location or somehow use them in order to complete levels. There are also a variety of objects that havepower-up effects, such as allowing Puggsy to be hit once or twice without dying, speeding him up or making him temporarily invincible, and objects that while not necessary, can be temporarily helpful, such as a variety ofguns (most of which have limited ammunition which can often not be refilled).
Objects react on a cleverphysics based system, which was an innovative feature at the time. The system allows objects to be thrown, or to topple if stacked without care. Each object also has a different weight. Another effect of this is that Puggsy can carry stacks of objects along a flat surface, but a slope will often cause all items except the bottom one (held by Puggsy) to topple and scatter. Also, any objects carried out of the level exits give different score values, or in the case of theheart object, an extra life. Other objects are extremely varied, including shells, weights, matches, keys, balloons, cups, barrels, clue-giving chests, knives, and candles.
The game features 57 levels in a variety of settings (16 of those levels being secret) and 6boss characters (9 boss characters in the Mega-CD version), although not all levels and bosses have to be finished to complete the game, and 5 training levels, accessed from the "Junior" option on the title screen. Also, while the player can just play through the game normally and reach the normal ending, a few secret "endings" (cinematic sequences that can only be terminated by resetting the console, or that reset the game themselves) are available by achieving certain goals, such as leaving one secret level with blocks that spelt out the word "HEROS", playing all 51 normal levels (6 of the secret levels are only accessible via a specialpassword, and are not counted towards the normal level total), or playing through the 6 previously mentioned special secret levels. The password to obtain these levels had to be obtained by evaluating three math expressions that appeared during the credits, where they are called "a silly maths equation". In the "HEROS" ending, the player is congratulated for finding the ending, and then asked, "...but are you good at maths?".
The Puggsy character originally appeared in anAmigademo in 1990 namedPuggs in Space, which was created and designed by Dionysus—ademogroup formed by Lee Carus, Alan McCarthy andTim Wright.[2] The management ofPsygnosis was impressed by the demo, and asked Dionysus to develop a game based around Puggsy.[3] However, the contract with Psygnosis to produce a game was short-lived; Wright said the company "didn't really 'get' where we were going with the game".[4] The demogroup was pulled out of the game's development, which was then shifted toTraveller's Tales. Psygnosis asked Traveller's Tales if they could develop a game using the character from the demo.[3]Puggsy was designed and programmed byJon Burton, while Andy Ingram handled thegraphic design and artwork for the game.[5] While the character design for Puggsy was retained from the demo, the developers changed his colour from red to orange to prevent the consoles from colour bleeding.[3] Wright recalled that Dionysus's version was going to be similar toLittleBigPlanet, while Traveller's Tales' version was created as a standard platformer.[4]
The object physics inPuggsy was inspired bySuper Mario World, a game Burton had enjoyed. Burton decided to create aSuper Mario World-type game, but with puzzles being based on physical objects with different properties such as buoyancy, weight, friction and so on. AsPuggsy was deemed too complicated for novice players, the training levels were added late in development in response to the publisher's input. Burton noted that the training levels would give the impression of a basic platformer.[3] The music was written by Matt Furniss, an employee ofKrisalis Software.[5] Wright created cover versions of Furniss' tunes for the Amiga version and added aPuggsy demo theme into a tail end of one of the pieces. Wright found Furniss' music "really well written and fun to convert to the Amiga, so there were no bad bones."[4] A promised sequel, titled asPuggsy II, was teased at the game's ending, but it never materialised.[6] TheSNES version was almost completed, but it was cancelled, with developers hoping to find the SNES version and release it inpublic domain.[7] The ROM to the SNES version was posted online in May 2022 byThe Cutting Room Floor.[8]
As the Mega Drivecartridge copiers were defaulted to simulate abattery-backed SRAM for storingsave data,Puggsy uses an SRAM as a means of ananti-piracy feature. Since the game employs apassword system, genuine cartridges do not contain an internal SRAM. The game performs an SRAM check after its fifth level, and if an SRAM is found, it displays a warning message telling the player to stop playing a "silly copy" ofPuggsy.[9]
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Mean Machines Sega | 90%(Mega Drive)[10] |
| The One Amiga 66 | 90%(Amiga)[11] |
| CU Amiga | 90%(Amiga)[12] |
| Amiga Dream 5 | 89%(Amiga)[13] |
MegaTech gave the game 90% and a Hyper Game Award, saying that it was "excellently designed and thought-out", but listed the control system as the major weak point.[14] Reviewing the Mega-CD version,GamePro praised the controls, the graphics, the sound effects, the strong challenge, and the attention to detail, concluding that "Though veteran gamers will quickly tire of Puggsy, younger players will enjoy his island antics."[15]
Look out forPuggsy II coming soon.
